Personality assessments are used by HR companies quite often in an effort to cut down on employee turnover and save money. Companies spend thousands of dollars recruiting, posting job descriptions, interviewing candidates, training new hires and then replacing them if it doesn’t work out in the long run. Because of this turnover, more companies are using personality assessments to improve their hiring ROI.

Here’s a list of personality assessments most commonly used by HR companies to evaluate and hire candidates.

Myers Briggs Type Indicator

One of the most common personality assessments used today by HR companies is that of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. This assessment was built based on the theory from Carl Jung that says humans experience the world in four psychological functions – intuition, sensation, thinking and feeling. HR companies use this test to determine how potential employees interact with others, how they communicate and what they need to improve when it comes to learning, communicating and working.

DISC (Dominant, Influencing, Steady, Compliant)

A second personality assessment commonly used today is that of the DISC test. DISC is an acronym for Dominant, Influencing, Steady, Compliant. This assessment is used to determine the personality profile of a potential employee by taking a look at their temperament, personality and behavior. Companies use the DISC assessment to incorporate some of the following into the workplace:

• Building leadership skills
• Increasing motivation
• Strengthening communication
• Boosting productivity and performance
• Creating productive work habits
• Choosing goals that can be obtained

Belbin Team Inventory

The Belbin Team Inventory is a personality test used to determine the preference for nine team roles. The nine team roles identified by the creator of the assessment, Meredith Belbin, include the following:

1. Plant
2. Resource Investigator
3. Co-ordinator
4. Shaper
5. Monitor Evaluator
6. Teamworker
7. Implementer
8. Complete/Finisher
9. Specialist

Firo-B

This test determines how the personal needs of the subject will affect their behavior towards other employees at the office. This tool is used to increase the impact of a person’s actions at work, to improve the effectiveness of a team, to identify options to increasing the job satisfaction of employees and to identify the leadership styles of employees.

Caliper

The Caliper Hiring Assessment really focuses on matching personality traits for success at your company. Whether it comes in job candidate assessments or a look at your company’s hiring process, this assessment aims to bring in good personality fits.

The Caliper Hiring Assessment compares the groupings of 23 personality traits and does an assessment of what qualities will lead to success at your company. Once your company knows general successful traits as well as which ones specifically work for that position, then an assessment of job candidates will help with producing matches.

Predictive Index

The Predictive Index really focuses on how job candidates will behave in certain situations in the workplace and react to differing styles of management. Using two lists 86 adjectives, the test asks job candidates how to describe themselves and also how others expect them to behave.

Four personality theories are determined:

• Dominance
• Extroversion
• Patience
• Formality

Two secondary personality theories are then determined:

• Decision-making
• Response level

Culture Index Survey

This survey measures a job candidate’s traits and their perceptions of the correct behavior in certain work situations. Taking those answers will produce a graph that measures the actual personality traits with how someone expects to behave.

Knowing the traits that will make someone successful in the open position should lead to a greater chance of hiring job candidates who can be productive for the organization.

The Culture Index produces a number of profiles with unique names, including the Trailblazer, Skinner, Persuader and Rainmaker.

The seven personality assessments above are the most commonly used tests by HR companies today. They can be used to solve conflicts, make better hiring decisions and form strong teams within a department.

When deciding whom to hire for your company, work with a staffing agency like Arlington Resources that offers a candidate assessment process. Contact our great team today to get started on finding top candidates for human resources jobs in Chicago.